Veteran NYC Cop: Society, Politicians Don’t Respect Us, We Don’t Get ‘Thank You’ Anymore

A New York City veteran police officer called in to the Breitbart News Saturday radio program and described the deflated morale among police officers across the nation.

Referring to himself as Ben, the officer holds mainstream media’s negative coverage of police, and craven political leaders who encourage left wing anti-cop movements like Black Lives Matter, largely responsible for the shift in attitude.

“Not only is the Liberal media extremely culpable in these instances,” Ben said, “Part of the culpability has to fall on these high level and low level politicians who fuel all the fire. They march with these people and they don’t speak out against them.”

Officer Ben participated in a dramatic shunning of NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio in December. He and hundreds of police officers turned their backs on a large screen showing the mayor as he spoke at the funeral of officer Rafael Ramos, one of two officers assassinated while sitting in a patrol car eating their lunch.

“I saw some upper level brass turn their backs as well. Also, we had officers from all over the country and they turned their backs as well. My fear is you never underestimate the stupidity of the voters in New York. If they vote for this guy again it could be just more of the same.”

Not long ago, de Blasio famously counseled his bi-racial son to beware of police officers who might harm him because of his race. Moreover, the mayor embraced race-baiter and agitator Al Sharpton. The New York Times reported that when “Mr. de Blasio held a round-table discussion after Eric Garner’s death, he was flanked by his police commissioner, William J. Bratton, and Sharpton; the optics suggested that each held equal positions of influence.”

Breitbart Texas Managing Editor Brandon Darby, who joined Breitbart’s editor-in-chief and host of the radio program, Alexander Marlow, for the segment, told Officer Ben that Breitbart will continue to give the officers our unmitigated support. “There is not a snowball’s chance in hell that these people are not going to be held accountable. And that their media allies will be held accountable for dehumanizing law enforcement officers. We have your back.”

Ben responded that he knew Breitbart would be there for the cops, but most of the other news outlets will not. Marlow said that “the good news is much of the mainstream media is losing their influence.”

The officer, who has been with the NYPD for 18 years, explained  that “We can’t even do our jobs anymore. The moment you pull someone over for running a red light, or whatever else, automatically they assume ‘I don’t have to listen to you. What you’re doing is illegal. You can’t stop me.’ They don’t roll down their windows. Everything in our job becomes a fight—both mentally and physically.”

More officers are getting hurt on a daily basis than ever before, Ben explained. He informed that the Black Lives Matter movement is an offshoot of the Black Liberation Army of the 60’s and 70’s. “They are getting stroked by the new Black Panther Party, the Nation of Islam, and all these other radicals. They see that this is their time to expel their hate. Unfortunately, we can’t do our jobs and it only makes it more dangerous for the people who live here.”

Marlow asked Ben, “Do you feel a sense of relief whenever you pull someone over and they don’t give you a hard time.?”

“Pretty much. And for someone who says thank you, it takes us completely off guard, because we don’t get that any more. We really don’t get that anymore,” he admitted.

Marlow followed up with the officer, asking him if things have changed since it is now de Blasio’s New York. “Completely. I just spoke to a friend of mine who’s a retired police officer. He worked when it was really bad in the late 80’s and early 90’s. He thinks that not only is the city bad, but it’s got worse than it used to be. Now that ‘stop, question, and frisk’ has dramatically dropped in New York, which was a major crime fighting tool that we used, criminals are now emboldened. They go out and do what they want.”

Ben went on to describe that what is happening today with the radical groups is “societal discord.” He added that, “This is a deviant subset that doesn’t obey the law. They grew up around people who never obey the law. They grew up in broken homes. They go out and do what’s good for themselves, not what’s good for society.”

The lack of family structure is at the heart of the problem, Ben suggested. “You have people that were’t raised by parents, often raised by relatives or grandparents. They are used to living off the system. They think they should automatically get a handout. That the world owes them everything and they should do nothing for it. Their idea of what’s right and wrong is not the societal norm. They’ll go rob somebody for an iPhone because they want it and that’s okay.”

Marlow asked Ben, “What’s it like to be a police officer in this day and age? It seems as though everything has changed over the last year.” Ben replied, “It used to be fun to come to work everyday. Half the time now you don’t even want to do anything. Nobody respects you and nobody listens to you. You’re there to help, but everyone thinks you want to kill them, or put them in jail. That’s not what I took this job for. I never violate the law, I only enforce it. I enforce the laws that are on the books. The politicians don’t respect us. Society doesn’t respect us. And they’re the product of their own downfall.”

Brandon Darby pointed out that the current philosophy of the institutional left is the same as it was for the radicals in the 60’s and 70’s. “The way to destroy a nation of laws is to make people lose faith in those who enforce them. That’s what they do. That’s what they’re all about. If there is anything the left hates, it’s police officers. They hate cops. They hate soldiers. They hate anyone who is necessary or vital to the enforcement of our current system.”